Gospel Reflection Jan 11 – Deacon Frank Iannarino
Sunday, January 11
The Baptism of the Lord
Matthew 3: 13-17
Gospel:
Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan
to be baptized by him.
John tried to prevent him, saying,
“I need to be baptized by you,
and yet you are coming to me?”
Jesus said to him in reply,
“Allow it now, for thus it is fitting for us
to fulfill all righteousness.”
Then he allowed him.
After Jesus was baptized,
he came up from the water and behold,
the heavens were opened for him,
and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove
and coming upon him.
And a voice came from the heavens, saying,
“This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”
Gospel Reflection:
When you hear the gospel proclaimed at Mass this weekend, you may struggle to understand the baptism of Jesus. If so, you’re not alone. Even John the Baptist had difficulty understanding why Jesus came to him for baptism. As John will say, “I need to be baptized by you, and yet you are coming to me?“
The baptism of Jesus is a mystery worthy of our contemplation. Certainly, Saint John Paul II considered it as something worth meditating on when he made this event one of the mysteries in the fourth set of mysteries he created for the rosary: the Luminous mysteries or the mysteries of Light.
I hope to describe one way in which Jesus‘ baptism by John and the Sacrament of Baptism we receive are similar. They are similar in that they are both a commitment. When John was baptizing people in the Jordan, their baptism was a public commitment to live holy lives and to prepare for the coming of God‘s kingdom. Jesus, in being baptized, was publicly committing himself to do God the Father’s will – to preach, teach, call people to repentance, to proclaim that Kingdom of God is at hand and, sacrifice himself on the cross for our sins.
The Sacrament of Baptism is that for us too. If you were baptized as an infant, most likely someone – your own parents and godparents – made that commitment for you. We are committed in a public event, to belong to God, to be God‘s obedient child, God‘s lover, God‘s representative. Eventually, we must make that commitment our own if our baptism is going to mean anything at all.
It is no accident that the Church gives us this Feast of the Baptism of Jesus on the final day of the Christmas Season. We have a good opportunity to recommit ourselves to Jesus. The effects and blessings of our baptism remain with us as long as we do not turn our hearts away from the Father who, long ago, chose us to be His son or daughter in the sacrament. In this way, Jesus’ baptism by John is very much like our own – not a private, secret event, but a public, open declaration of our commitment to love and serve God and others as Jesus, the perfect Son of God, did as he began his own public ministry.
Deacon Frank Iannarino